Music has always been a part of my life -- now welcome to the journey. Just a little blog to reminisce, review, rant and rave about the music in my life. "Music is my mother and my father. It is my work and my rest,my blood, my compass, my love" ~Jeff Buckley

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

War seemed to be the motif for 1982," adding that "Everywhere you
looked, from the Falklands to the Middle East and South Africa, there
was war. By calling the album War we're giving people a slap in the face and at the same time getting away from the cosy image a lot of people have of U2.~Bono(War and Peace NME - 1983)

On this final day of February in 1983, U2 released its third album, War. Boy and October introduced us to the religious youth from Ireland with a few whispers of the political 80's, War gave us the first hint of the politics that would shape this bands songs and their hearts. The Edge honed his signature sound on songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday and Two Hearts Beat as One, not to mention his signature cold notes on the piano. He also had one of very few opportunities to sing co-lead on the Cold War atomic song, Seconds. It was also the advent of the video age and U2 was eager to take part, freezing on horseback for New Years Day, the track first released to the world. It was a heavier sound that most were used to with U2 but it worked well with the politics of the tracks. Interestingly enough, the album ends with one of the most iconic U2 songs, 40. Telling us more songs were on their way in only the way expected of U2, through a Psalm.

Sunday Bloody SundayBono's mother was a member of the Church of Ireland and his father was Catholic making him both unable and unwilling to choose a side in the violence. The band tried to stay away from, ironically enough, the politics of Ireland. The song's main anthem is How long must we sing this song? That is the point of the song. One of the most gut wrenching versions of this song was seen on The Rattle and Hum tour. Bono, angered by the events of a bombing in Enniskillen, sang an impassioned version of this song. The version most are familiar with is however, the Red Rocks version. SecondsThe Soldiers Girls and the atomic annihilation inspiration for this song. So many angry comments of the times yet echo so into the future.

New Year's DayIt is NOT, I repeat NOT a song about celebrating the start of the New Year. It is in fact a song about Polish Solidarity, a worker's party that was gaining popular support in the push towards the end of The Cold War. Adam's pulsing bass lines dancing with The Edge's tight piano notes are one of the iconic moments on this album. Trivia (U2's little known except by fanatics as myself, Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop, was a B-Side to this single. And now you know).

Like a Song...You think Larry Mullen was on fire for Sunday Bloody Sunday, he's the entire drum line on this song. This is a song about the generation of the 80's that was tired of war and fighting and revolution. In fighting, out fighting ... when does it stop?

But I won't let others live in hell
As we divide against each other
And we fight amongst ourselves
Too set in our ways to try to rearrange
Too right to be wrong, in this rebel song

Drowning ManThis song is not political but a cry to help their own bassist who was struggling with his own demons and the least religious in the band. There are so many layers to this song both beautiful and chaotic.

The RefugeeOkay ... a bit of a departure. The refugees are moving to America ... wait a minute. Two Hearts Beat As OneOkay, a love song this time. Bono wrote this while on his honeymoon with his wife Alison. Just take a moment to appreciate Adam's bass line in this one.

Red LightNo overt political statements here ... love, red light ... and one of the stand in back up singers stripped to her bra under the red lights of the studio.

SurrenderSo many way to interpret this song. Drugs, love, god ...

40Only U2 could get away with singing David's 40th Psalm. Here is a clip from Madison Square Garden in 2015. Chills every time.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Oh, can't you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take

The Police - Every Breath You Take

I am notorious for having to know the lyrics of a
song. Why was it written? What is the symbolism? I love the thoughts and
research that some artists put into a song. I admit I have
ruined a song for some people and have to practice restraint most of the time.
I apologize in advance if I am about to do it again. To me, a misplaced song in
a show or movie is as bad as a character that is there for no reason.
Do your research people -- or come and see me first. Here are some of the most
notoriously mis-understood love songs.

Dave Matthews - Crash Into Me

Sexy love song this is not. Creepy stalker voyeur
reminiscent of The Police classic Every Breath You Take it is. It seems
like a love song. It delivers like a love song. I guess it is a love song--sort
of??

Oh I watch you there

through the window

And I stare at you

You wear nothing but you

wear it so well

Creep. Ok, sadly, some might be okay with Dave
Matthews staring at them through the window without knowing ... I would prefer
to know then, I guess, all of sudden that creep factor kind of subsides -
anyway...

Matthews has jokingly stated this song was
written as an alternative to getting arrested. Hey, he said it, not me. We still love you
anyway, Dave.

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA

Very good example of why you should understand
what the song is about before you use it for, I don't know, for something
like your presidential campaign.

Ronald Reagan said of Born in the USA and
Bruce Springsteen:

America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your
hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans
admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams
come true is what this job of mine is all about.

Sure Ronnie, messages of hope, uh
huh, being a down on your luck Vietnam Veteran blue collar
worker, losing your faith and spirit in the country you were once so proud
of, this song is...completely and utterly not a song of hope but of despair.
This is a classic case of judging a book by its cover.

R.E.M. - The One I Love

Again, deceitful. Stipe grabs you with
the seeming dedication at the beginning ... This one goes out to the
one I love. But wait - listen. After he has you in the nice hug, his
arms tighten with the next line ... this one goes out to the one I've
left behind. WTF? Left behind? And when you think the grip is so
tight, he takes you and throws you to the ground A simple prop to occupy my
time. A song about never ending love? Hardly. A song written from the point
of view of someone who has had their heart ripped out and stomped on several
times, possibly.

U2 - Love is Blindness

When it comes to songs, Bono can be a sneaky
bugger. 99% of the songs he writes with Edge are
blanketed in religious symbolism and politics. Songs like Pride,
Please, and Bullet the Blue Sky are seeped in politics and religion.
Love is Blindness is no exception to this rule. You are correct in
assuming that Bono is singing about love. He is singing about love of country
and love of identity. He just happens to be singing it from the point of view
of a car bomber:

In a parked car in a crowded street

You see your love made complete

Love is clockworks

And cold steel

Fingers too numb to feel

Squeeze the handle

Blow out the candle

Blindness

A little death without mourning

No call and no warning

Baby a dangerous idea, that almost makes sense

If there
was deleted scene in Blown Away that could be created today -
Tommy Lee Jones would be dancing around and singing this song.

Faith No More - Underwater Love

Mike Patton totally and completely freaked me out
with this song. Yeah, I sing along to it and people look at you in a very odd
way when you do. It's upbeat, especially when he sings it live. Like he's
riding on a carousel, not drowning his love.

Bubbling up to the surface

Are you getting a breath of fresh air?

Forever longing to make you mine

But I can't escape your stare...

Liquid seeps into your lungs

But your eyes look so serene

A far cry from Epic (okay there was the
fish) or Falling to Pieces, Mike takes drowning his love to another love
- forever longing to make you mine.

Radiohead - Creep

This is just a sad love song. You can hear the
quiet sadness in the beginning that builds and builds from the anger and
frustrtaion of loving someone and feeling that they are too good for you.

I'm a creep.

I'm a weirdo.

What the hell am I doing here?

You listen to it again and realize what's going
on:

I want you to notice

When I'm not around

I wish I was special

You're so fucking special

Ok, first I was really being hard on myself. Then
it's like - you know what. Screw you. You're so special but I'm still feeling
hard on myself. I still love you but I'm feeling like a freak.

I don't belong here

Harsh. Who hasn't been there. Yup, we all have.
Maybe not to the Thom Yorke sense, but we've all been there. (This will blow
your mind: The Pretenders covering Creep:

Motley Crue - You're All I Need

Bassist Nikki Sixx was so ahead of the Law and
Order SVU curve when he wrote this song. Supposedly "ripped from the
headlines", the song seems so romantic if you're only catching the chorus
You're all I need, make you only mine. Most people missed the first verse at
this point:

The blade of my knife
Faced away from your heart
Those last few nights
It turned and sliced you apart
This love that I tell
Now feels lonely as hell
From this padded prison cell

Oh, prison cell, you say. This guy, similar to
Mike Patton, was not going to lose his girl - ever. This video was
banned from MTV.

And finally, one of the most misunderstood songs (my opinion) is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Used often to mourn, look more closely, it is a very sensual love song. (See my own post, A Misguided Hallelujah). Many religious references are in the song, but they are of references to the Bibles infamous lovers. Kind David, Samson, Delilah, and Bathsheba.

To quote Jeff Buckley himself: Whoever
listens carefully to 'Hallelujah' will discover that it is a song about
sex, about love, about life on earth...It's an ode to life and love. Thoughts? He truly sang the words with longing, passion, want of
physical closeness.

There was a time when you let me know

What's really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you

The holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Yes, I have stayed away from songs like She
Bop, Turning Japanese and Dancing With Myself - even
though self love does count as love.And if I ruined ANY of those three songs
for you, I make no apologies.

To me, songs are like poetry. The artist (usually)
is trying to get a message or story or feeling across to the listener. Next
time, listen, try and figure out what it is they are trying to say or what
story they are trying to tell...especially before you dedicate it to someone you love.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Nathan:
And I'm not gonna change.
You know that, don't you?
Cos it isn't a phase.
I'm not gonna grow out of it.
I'm gonna be gay forever.

On February 23, 1999 a series based on the gay culture in
Manchester's Canal Street area first aired in the UK. Queer as Folk UK ran
for only two seasons, giving us only ten episodes, but it
remains one of the foremost important shows for gay culture.*

The main characters Stuart Alan Jones (Aidan Gillen), long time
friend and Dr. Who loving Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly), and teenager Nathan
Maloney (Charlie Hunnam) brought Canal Street culture into the mainstream
for many. To me it is a time capsule of a bygone era. Think about it, the
thought of gay marriage seemed like something of a dream. Many of the
stereotypes of gay culture were outed: one night stands, parties and drugs. But
it also confronted the conflicting moment of finally coming out with possibly one
of the best scenes ever in television, if not for how Stuart comes out, but how
he also exposes his nephew for being the creepy blackmailer that he is.

For me,
it was all Stuart Alan Jones. I had loved Aidan Gillen since I saw him in Some
Mother's Son, but he made Stuart the hedonistic, self-absorbed, sad,
confused gay man, father, lover, and enemy who blows up people's cars. The man,
who in Episode Four said he wanted to "die shagging", became almost a
gay superhero in this show.

He's not
perfect, although he thinks he is; he's capable of having feelings of love, but
fights them all the way; and there is no denying that he is definitely as sexy
as he believes he is - and beyond. Seriously, have you seen him dancing?
Have you seen that smile?

Vince
is a whole ball of confusion in the series. He truly does love Stuart, not like
Nathan thinks he loves Stuart, but really loves him. He does wait for him to
finally face the truth, after testing him with the older Cameron.

And
last - Nathan. While controversy was abound about how young Nathan was for 29
year old Stuart, I think Nathan personified a generation fighting for
acceptance just as he was. Teenagers are confused to begin with. Being gay
and a teenager, knowing that once you come out people will both turn on you and
accept you is undeniably terrifying. But Nathan seemed to have no fear and even
risked his family's relationship. His relationship with Stuart and Vince was
also, at times, a bit awkward.

Eighteen years have gone by. I would love to see where this story would begin now. Where
is Nathan? Whatever became of Stuart and Vince in London? What would the shag
map look like now, Stuart?

*The US version, based in Pittsburgh followed the end of this series and
lasted for five seasons on Showtime. This series tackled serious
LGBT topics such as HIV/ AIDs, gay bashing, adoption, and discrimination.